Deerpark car seller steers clear of scammer

Deerpark — When Ken Smith decided to sell his wife's shiny white Cadillac, he thought everything would run smoothly.

Ashley Kelly

Deerpark — When Ken Smith decided to sell his wife's shiny white Cadillac, he thought everything would run smoothly.

After all, Smith has been selling cars all his life. But this time, he almost got scammed.

Here's how it unfolded:

Last week, Smith listed the 1995 Cadillac for $7,500 on Craigslist.com and in the Times Herald-Record. A few days later, he received an e-mail from someone saying he was interested in buying the car.

Smith told him to send him a bank check by FedEx the next day. Two days later, a check was delivered by DHL, written out for $10,000 instead of the $7,500 sale price.

The scammer said he sent an extra $2,500 for shipping costs, Smith said. He wanted Smith to send him a personal check for $2,200 and to keep the extra $300 for his troubles. The scammer followed up by asking Smith to wire the money instead.

Smith examined the check. At first glance, it looked legitimate.

But as he continued to examine it, he noticed something strange about the micro-encoding at the bottom of the check. Also, the bank's watermark symbol covered the name of the city it was from.

Smith took it to his bank in Matamoras, Pa., where a branch manager told him his suspicions were correct.

"They tried to scam the wrong person," said Smith, who owned the Port Jervis Automall for 32 years.

Smith, 59, reported the bad check to the Port Jervis Police Department and the FBI. He's speaking up to warn others.

Middletown state police Senior Investigator Brian Meier said police have not seen scams like this one around here. But Meier said they have seen numerous fraudulent American Express traveler's checks floating around.

"Nothing is free," Meier said. "If someone sends you a check and they keep wanting you to cash it and keep the money, there is (probably) something wrong with that."

Smith isn't done with the scammer. Yesterday Smith told the scammer by e-mail that he needed a copy of his driver's license before he could turn over the car's title. The scammer told him the license had expired, Smith said. Then Smith told them that all he needed was the license number.

He hasn't received a response.

The Cadillac is still for sale. "This time, no scammers please," Smith said with a laugh.